The new QuickBooks for Mac 2012 is designed to satisfy the unique characteristics of Mac business users, who are very different from their Windows counterparts.

Intuit recently offered a sneak peek of the latest version of QuickBooks for Mac, which is set to become available on Sept. 26, to AppleInsider. Pranay Kapadia, group product manager of QuickBooks for Mac and Mobile, explained that the financial application is different on Mac OS X than it is on Windows because the average customer for each product is different as well.

For example, the average QuickBooks for Mac user has a much smaller business size compared to a QuickBooks user on PC. Intuit revealed that 60 percent of its QuickBooks for Mac customers are sole proprietors of their business, and most of them are in service-based industries.

"It's about solving the jobs well," Kapadia said of the differences between QuickBooks for Mac and PC, "and not about check-boxes and feature parity."

One major focus in this year's update is a new user experience, which Kapadia said aims to make sure that new users start with QuickBooks for Mac on a confident note. In that respect, Intuit has three things to help: Guide Me, a list of top-used features; an active blog where users can get updates; and assistance and support that comes in the form of a 60-minute personalized setup with each purchase.

One key change highlighted by Will Lynes, QuickBooks for Mac product manager, relates to invoices. A list of transactions has been added to the left, along with search functionality, allowing users to find transactions and invoices quickly. The customer info panel and transaction list also appears on estimates, receive payments, sales receipts, credit memos and refunds, bills, write checks, enter credit card charges, and general journal entries.

An available new customer summary includes information like open balance, recent transactions and notes. The development team's effort, Lynes said, has been to make QuickBooks for Mac more efficient, presenting users with all information in one place.

But Intuit has also worked to simplify its finance software with the 2012 version. For example, developers have reduced the number of save buttons in invoices to just one, making what Lynes referred to as an "elegant solution."

Customer polls showed Intuit that the top places where Mac users are spending time are with invoicing, bills and expenses. For all of them, the company decided to adopt a paper-like design that they felt would help users view data in an un-cluttered way.

Another major feature of the latest version is an improved search function. Lynes admitted that the previous search experience didn't work like Mac users, who are familiar with Apple's Spotlight feature, would expect.

Now, just like with Spotlight or Google, users can simply type in a search term, like a customer name, employee name, amount or transaction number. Results show up quickly, and large amounts of data can be further filtered by options like transaction type.

Users can also save their search criteria, just like Apple's own smart searches in Finder. The option doesn't store the list of results, but the criteria itself, allowing for dynamic results to be delivered.

For online banking, Intuit has taken lessons learned from its acquisition of Mint.com in improving transactions that are imported into QuickBooks. Now, the software will analyze how users are renaming their payees, and suggest names based on that.

Among beta testers who have been using QuickBooks for Mac 2012 ahead of its launch, more than half have said they're saving an hour or more per month in time compared to the previous version of QuickBooks, Intuit said.

"This is where we want to take lead and lead with Apple and make sure we're doing the right thing for our customers," Kapadia said. "It's not about the laundry list of features."

For more on QuickBooks for Mac 2012, see an extensive rundown on the list of features highlighted by Intuit.

Finally, what looks like a nice solution to use. I'm glad they're really looking and listening to see where they should put their efforts into improving the software. The chart depicting the differences between PC and Mac Quicken users is extremely interesting as well.

Did they ever fix the problem where the Mac version could not be used on a PC QuickBooks network? That is classical Intuit. Apparently, the concept of networking different types of computers is so alien to them that they never bothered to make the Mac version compatible with a PC QuickBooks network.

And the wording of their press release makes me think that nothing has changed. They still have this view that Mac users have different needs and don't need a 'real' financial solution like Windows users. I'm disgusted by the fact that they are still spewing this nonsense.

As a shareholder, I'd be livid. First, by the fact the they're alienating so many users and second by the fact that they're wasting so much money having parallel development. A more intelligent approach would be to have a single calculation module and then only the UI would need to be developed separately.

I would strongly encourage any Mac users using QuickBooks to find an alternative. It has been at least 15 years since Intuit wrote any decent software for the Mac.

"I'm way over my head when it comes to technical issues like this"Gatorguy 5/31/13

I owned a small business in construction for 16 years and sold out in 2007. I used MultiLedger by CheckMark along with their payroll software. Quickbooks on a Mac was a sorry offering from Intuit. My company employed from 6 to 13 people. I would expect that many small businesses with employees simply didn't find Intuit's offerings up to the task. It seems that they have created the user base and now are using this self created statistical analysis to justify continuing to offer the same sorry stuff. Intuit should either get with Mac software or get out completely. That goes for their dumb Quicken offerings as well which I gave up on long ago.

Did they ever fix the problem where the Mac version could not be used on a PC QuickBooks network?

All the CPAs I know are using Windows. If it is incompatible how do you get your taxes done?

Edit:

I did some searching around and this is what I found.

Share your QuickBooks data with Windows-based users, such as your accountant. Send a Mac file to a Windows user (who can update it) and the Windows user can send it back. Just click the toolbar icon: "Backup to QuickBooks Windows". As QuickBooks creates the backup, it simultaneously creates a PDF file of simple instructions for opening and sending back the file. Send both files to your accountant or Windows user.

Pranay Kapadia, group product manager of QuickBooks for Mac and Mobile, explained that the financial application is different on Mac OS X than it is on Windows because the average customer for each product is different as well.

For example, the average QuickBooks for Mac user has a much smaller business size compared to a QuickBooks user on PC. Intuit revealed that 60 percent of its QuickBooks for Mac customers are sole proprietors of their business, and most of them are in service-based industries.

"It's about solving the jobs well," Kapadia said of the differences between QuickBooks for Mac and PC, "and not about check-boxes and feature parity."

this is bullshit. and a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If they keep making a mac product for small businesses, is there any surprise that their mac customers will be mainly small businesses?

Fragmentation!
All we ask for is the same Windows version on the Mac to avoid the plaguing incompatibilities. Companies buy Windows in Mac based shops only to run software such as QuickBooks, that chart is crap at best.

I owned a small business in construction for 16 years and sold out in 2007. I used MultiLedger by CheckMark along with their payroll software. Quickbooks on a Mac was a sorry offering from Intuit. My company employed from 6 to 13 people. I would expect that many small businesses with employees simply didn't find Intuit's offerings up to the task. It seems that they have created the user base and now are using this self created statistical analysis to justify continuing to offer the same sorry stuff. Intuit should either get with Mac software or get out completely. That goes for their dumb Quicken offerings as well which I gave up on long ago.

+99
when i started my business, one-write and peach tree were the best choices. Peachtree has grown, and its not great but it gets the job done. Most people don't change lightly, its not like changing your favorite spreadsheet app. I run my business on a mac, but have to use virtualization for peach tree. Quickbooks was NEVER up to running a small business, and on a mac was much worse, and its so recent. Hence there are so few business running QB with any employees on a mac.
I work with a lot of other business owners - peachtree is most common - and if intuit offered a QB alternative, many would switch - if only because of peachtree performance.

Ha Ha! Well I know a little. I know enough to tell my accountant to send over the Windows QB file to our CPA. Fortunately, I don't need to know any more than that so I can concentrate on making and spending money.

First, a little story:
A few years ago in Canada, Intuit offered QuickTax for Mac users. But it wasn't complete. Is was missing the RRSP (similar to 401k) planner so that you could plan your RRSP filing and see how much tax you would save. They promised the update was coming. It came - AFTER THE RRSP FILING DEADLINE!

The next year they discontinued QuickTax for Mac citing "we had poor sales last year. The Mac market in Canada is not large enough to justify us developing and selling QuickTax for Mac." Gee, you think? Not including one of the biggest reasons people bought tax software might result in poor sales.

I wish Intuit would realize these things:
1. Mac users are different only in that they demand better UI for their software.
2. You can't justifiably withhold the features Mac users want and then say "Mac users don't want that because they don't use our product for that." BECAUSE THEY CAN'T, YOU MORONS!

Mac users are not different in that you can use that as an excuse to leave out features or not implement cross-platform compatibility in your products. Stop using that as an excuse for poor planning.

It's like setting up a lemonade stand year after year that sells only lemonade and then claiming "my customers don't want iced tea because they've only ever bought lemonade from me."

I owned a small business in construction for 16 years and sold out in 2007. I used MultiLedger by CheckMark along with their payroll software. Quickbooks on a Mac was a sorry offering from Intuit. My company employed from 6 to 13 people. I would expect that many small businesses with employees simply didn't find Intuit's offerings up to the task. It seems that they have created the user base and now are using this self created statistical analysis to justify continuing to offer the same sorry stuff. Intuit should either get with Mac software or get out completely. That goes for their dumb Quicken offerings as well which I gave up on long ago.

That was my reaction too. Why not make their software scaleable rather than limiting it based on a user profile which is a direct result of the software's limitations in the first place?

From Apple ][ - to new Mac Pro I've owned them all.Long on AAPL so biased"Google doesn't sell you anything, Google just sells you!"

All the CPAs I know are using Windows. If it is incompatible how do you get your taxes done?

Edit:

I did some searching around and this is what I found.

Share your QuickBooks data with Windows-based users, such as your accountant. Send a Mac file to a Windows user (who can update it) and the Windows user can send it back. Just click the toolbar icon: "Backup to QuickBooks Windows". As QuickBooks creates the backup, it simultaneously creates a PDF file of simple instructions for opening and sending back the file. Send both files to your accountant or Windows user.

It is 2011, Macs have been using Intel chips for long enough that the software could and should have been indistinguishable other than the usual looking nicer on a Mac type UI things. It is simply ridiculous that Inuit think the Mac versions should be dumbed down. CPAs are people too, perhaps they'd love to use Macs and not waste half their client's time waiting for virus updates, Adobe Reader updates ... And so on.

From Apple ][ - to new Mac Pro I've owned them all.Long on AAPL so biased"Google doesn't sell you anything, Google just sells you!"

Puh-leeze. QuickBooks is a piece of junk. So QuickBooks 2012 for Mac has finally caught up to QuickBooks 1995 for Windows?

QuickBooks for Mac will never, ever, ever, ever hold a candle to the BEST accounting package for the Mac, which is AccountEdge.

And anybody who believes that Intuit actually gives a damn about the Mac platform clearly hasn't been paying attention to how Intuit has treated all their loyal Quicken customers of over 20 years. Intuit is a horrible company that makes horrible products with horrible customer service (straight to you from India!).

I wouldn't give Intuit one more penny of my money if my life depended on it.

I support REAL COMPANIES that make GREAT PRODUCTS that WHOLEHEARTEDLY SUPPORT THE MAC... such as AccountEdge (for business accounting) and iBank (for personal finances).

Sure, AccountEdge and iBank both have their problems too, but at least they CARE about their Mac customers and WANT to continually make the best products for Mac users.

Intuit has shown their true colors, and they are a disgusting company.

The new QuickBooks for Mac 2012 is designed to satisfy the unique characteristics of Mac business users, who are very different from their Windows counterparts.

For example, the average QuickBooks for Mac user has a much smaller business size compared to a QuickBooks user on PC. Intuit revealed that 60 percent of its QuickBooks for Mac customers are sole proprietors of their business, and most of them are in service-based industries.

Intuit is either clueless or purposely creates statistics to justify limited development efforts for Macs. Their statistics comparing QuickBooks users for Mac and PC may be true but it is not a surprise. Past and current Mac versions have been crippled and cannot be used by anyone but small businesses or larger businesses with very simple accounting needs. Our firm's business is all on Macs but guess what, Intuit? We use Parallels and run QuickBooks Pro in Windows 7 on our Macs! We show up as a Windows user in your statistic because you force us to use your Windows version.

And Intuit, you know very well that plenty of service-based industries have needs that are not covered by your Mac version. In our case, one of the key reasons why we use QuickBooks Pro for Windows with Parallels is multi-currency support. As long as there is no multi-currency in the Mac version, we have to use the Windows version.

There are some excellent observations of QBs here but if you really want intuit to listen maybe email them and tell them directly, venting here may feel good but won't bring change.

I actually have spent a good deal of time trying to work with QB support and marketing staff in the hopes of getting the damn product fixed. #1 Problem not addressed in the title of the story: Proper Compatibility with Windows Versions!! I don't want to hear "unique differences" between Mac and PC users... I want to hear how the same great (read craptastic) experience on Windows is not available in a bug-compatible way with the Mac versions... and you can even share the same data file!

But no... Our protest was sticking with 2006 since its release. Now we are going to a professional ($25k) system and dumping Intuit. Not really sure who wins here though...

Seriously though it takes more than Intel chips to make it cross platform. To program for Windows you use Visual Studio and for Mac, XCode. Unless you do some porting thing like Adobe and Apple do, but that never turns out so well.

What is it with Accounting/Book Keeping software that makes it so unappealing? Oh yea! The butt ugly interface that Intuit is known to produce. That's the ticket!

I don't really care if the UI is pretty. Is that really a criteria for this type of software? Are you looking at the UI or at your numbers? Hm, maybe that's why the economy is in the mess it's in. Everyone obsessed with pretty accounting software instead of keeping an eye on their numbers.

Look what happened to Quicken. Intuit spent all their time making it look slick and didn't bother to put any real functionality in it. Sure, make it pretty if you have the extra time to do so. But make it work first!

Ha Ha! Well I know a little. I know enough to tell my accountant to send over the Windows QB file to our CPA. Fortunately, I don't need to know any more than that so I can concentrate on making and spending money.

Once again, you've managed to prove that you don't understand business finances, accounting, or taxes.

Oh, and BTW, people who intend to make money understand their business and don't simply dump it all in an accountant's lap without any understanding of what's going on with the business finances.

"I'm way over my head when it comes to technical issues like this"Gatorguy 5/31/13

If they keep making a mac product for small businesses, is there any surprise that their mac customers will be mainly small businesses?

Great point, I agree! Let's build a new Quickbooks for Mac that targets the needs of the existing user base, and ignore the fact that no one with accounting needs beyond a Quicken checkbook register uses Quickbooks for Mac because it sucks so badly! What a great way to run a business!!

+99
when i started my business, one-write and peach tree were the best choices. Peachtree has grown, and its not great but it gets the job done. Most people don't change lightly, its not like changing your favorite spreadsheet app. I run my business on a mac, but have to use virtualization for peach tree. Quickbooks was NEVER up to running a small business, and on a mac was much worse, and its so recent. Hence there are so few business running QB with any employees on a mac.
I work with a lot of other business owners - peachtree is most common - and if intuit offered a QB alternative, many would switch - if only because of peachtree performance.

Hmm wife works for an accounting firm...99% of SMB use Quickbooks on Windows. They have had a few customers try moving to the current Mac version only to go back to the Windows version in Parrallels.

Seriously though it takes more than Intel chips to make it cross platform. To program for Windows you use Visual Studio and for Mac, XCode. Unless you do some porting thing like Adobe and Apple do, but that never turns out so well.

True, the Intel chip really has no bearing on making it cross platform, but there is still little excuse for the hugh difference in features between Mac and Windows versions (this applies to the consumer Quicken as well). It's not like the financial formulas change. They aren't doing anything magical in the UI that should have huge depenancies on unique OS services. And it's not as if they need to optimize the code like you do for gaming to squeeze out the maximum framerates.

It's like another poster suggested, Intuit's crappy Mac sales are due to their crappy Mac software. They keep setting the bar lower and then can't figure out why their Mac sales shrink while the Mac's marketshare continues to rise.

After so many sensible comments, mine is probably redundant but I have to say it!

Talk about putting the cart before the horse - the effect as the cause! Are Intuit REALLY so dumb as to believe that the Mac version only needs to support simple accounting because that's all the users use???!!!

Can they REALLY not see that the only users are small businesses because the programme doesn't support any other kind of user. I, for one, would be using it if it had all the features of the Windows version. I bought the earlier version but had to abandon it because it lacked not only multi-currency (which is a key requirement for my SMALL business) but many other features as well.

Can they really not see how many more customers they would get if they took the trouble to make their programme cross-platform - like Filemaker does so successfully?

Once again, you've managed to prove that you don't understand business finances, accounting, or taxes.

Oh, and BTW, people who intend to make money understand their business and don't simply dump it all in an accountant's lap without any understanding of what's going on with the business finances.

I guess I'm just lucky then. Seriously, if you just want to toss insults, I'm fine with that, but you know nothing about my business. I can tell you that my department is the most profitable in the entire corporation, and I've been in this same business since 1985. I definitely know how to make money.

QuickBooks for Mac will never, ever, ever, ever hold a candle to the BEST accounting package for the Mac, which is AccountEdge.

absolutely correct! AccountEdge (formerly MYOB) IS the best accounting software for the Mac, bar none. I am using it for our business since 1994. it simply is an astoundingly well developed piece of software: general accounting, payroll, fluid integration with POS system (LightSpeed), etc.

all I hear from QuickBooks users is some form of moaning & groaning...

There are some excellent observations of QBs here but if you really want intuit to listen maybe email them and tell them directly, venting here may feel good but won't bring change.

Doesn't work. I used to beta test for Intuit and armies of beta testers were telling them the same thing - and they simply responded that Mac users didn't need the things we were all requesting.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mstone

I guess I'm just lucky then. Seriously, if you just want to toss insults, I'm fine with that, but you know nothing about my business. I can tell you that my department is the most profitable in the entire corporation, and I've been in this same business since 1985. I definitely know how to make money.

I'm glad - but that doesn't show that you know anything about taxes or accounting or finance software.

Your suggestion that one must be using Windows Quickbooks in order to send financial details to an accountant is ludicrous - even for you.

"I'm way over my head when it comes to technical issues like this"Gatorguy 5/31/13

absolutely correct! AccountEdge (formerly MYOB) IS the best accounting software for the Mac, bar none. I am using it for our business since 1994. it simply is an astoundingly well developed piece of software: general accounting, payroll, fluid integration with POS system (LightSpeed), etc.

all I hear from QuickBooks users is some form of moaning & groaning...

I used MYOB for years. Then (in canada) Intuit bought it and quickly discontinued it. Then they dropped mac support pretty much all together.

Your suggestion that one must be using Windows Quickbooks in order to send financial details to an accountant is ludicrous - even for you.

You love to twist my words don't you? I suggested no such thing. Since I was unfamiliar with the software I merely asked the question if it was not compatible... But since no one answered the question I went and tracked down the answer for myself and posted an edit to my earlier comment before you even made you first reply to me. Of course you omitted that from your reply so you could belittle my feeble understanding. Thank you oh holy one for sharing your wisdom.

Another random thought regarding Intuit's ineptness... if Intuit is not interested in "feature parity" between platforms, then why have two vastly different products share the same name and roughly the same price points?

Shouldn't this be called something like "Intuit Small Business EZ-Accounting Lite for Mac", or something equally as cheesy and consumerish? And sell for $79?

Another random thought regarding Intuit's ineptness... if Intuit is not interested in "feature parity" between platforms, then why have two vastly different products share the same name and roughly the same price points?

Shouldn't this be called something like "Intuit Small Business EZ-Accounting Lite for Mac", or something equally as cheesy and consumerish? And sell for $79?

Actually, they did that with Quicken. The Mac version is now called "Quicken Essentials". I guess "Quicken stripped of half of the useful features because we're incompetent to make decent Mac software" didn't fit on the box.

"I'm way over my head when it comes to technical issues like this"Gatorguy 5/31/13

If they keep making a mac product for small businesses, is there any surprise that their mac customers will be mainly small businesses?

Amen man.... I was thinking the same thing. Intuit has SCREWED we mac users since day one. When they put out a new OS X version of Quickbooks not long ago it was the same crappy program that they had turned tail on us with when OSX first came out. It's pure shit. Hell, the OS9 version of QB was loads better than everything after it. I half wonder if they're in Microsofts back pocket. The Mac version has always been an incomplete, piece of crap to try and run your businesses with. I've owned two businesses and am currently out of the starting gate with a third. I refuse to waste any more of my precious time dicking with a PC, and I refuse to give QB any more business because of this half ass version of QB for Mac. The PC version is pretty good, but it's no enterprise solution for running a business of any substantial size. or if you have a substantial product line you build yourself... it so SUCKS for that... even the PC version. It's really only good if you're buying product that you resell (retail business) or it's also sufficient for a service business. Either way, they have purposefully put out pure shit when it comes to their mac products. When they first killed off Quickbooks for Mac back in the OS 9 days, I ended up moving over to MYOB. While it wasn't as intuitive as even the old OS9 version of QB.... it's actually a hell of a lot better than even the PC version when it comes to functionality.

For my new business I went into overkill mode. I'm using an open source ERP called Xtuple. If you have a business and want to go all Mac check this program out. http://www.xtuple.com There's a free version called Postbooks that makes QB look like the trash software that it is. It's not up to the quality of NetSuite ($10-15K/year)... but it's close. And you can run the database server on your local machine... or a server (mac/linux or god forbid, a PC). Same deal with the client application... you can run it on anything. There's a kind of steep learning curve but it's worth the effort. Just try to understand the program adds a second step to most anything. Want to make a purchase order? Well it's pretty strait forward, but understand there's the added step for having someone outside of your buyer approve the purchase order. OF course you can give the buyer permission to approve a PO then that's that... but there's the second step. But it does everything.... and I mean anything and everything. CRM, Accounting, Work Orders for manufacturing, Inventory, EVERYTHING....I should be getting paid for this.....LOL.

If you own a small business, look at MYOB, it's tons better than QB.... and if you want something more substantial take a look at Xtuple. You can't beat the price.

What Intuit has done to us is unethical and just flat out stupid. All of these programs are just a client application linked into a database. There's no freaking reason that the Mac version of Quickbooks Pro shouldn't or couldn't be identical to what the PC version has. They're just trying to pigeon hole us into using a substandard POS pile of software. Run from them, they don't deserve our business. The will never see mine again, that's for sure.

Wouldn't all the same criticisms regarding lack of feature parity also apply to Microsoft Office for Mac, especially Outlook? But it seems that for Microsoft's Mac products, Mac users care less about feature parity and more about pretty interfaces. So why does Intuit get criticized for lack of feature parity?

Accounts software companies all seem to share that arrogant Windows user attitude that the ONLY reason why people use Macs is because these users are ONLY interested in things that look pretty and have a pretty interface. It's so patronising.

I'm director of a Consultancy involved in Accountancy for small businesses and although we would prefer to use Macs for everything, we have to use Windows PCs for the accounting software because there is NO accountancy software for Macs that can do multi-currency, multi-client, double-entry - at least not for the Swiss market.

In Europe the market is dominated by Sage which uses an Access database as the underpinnings so clearly it isn't cross platform, nor Mac suitable. That seems to often be the case with these programs. Intuit has very little presence here, but the time I used it on a PC it was a terrible experience. I needed to do a tax return for a self-employed businessman. Legally the business was allowed to file accounts a year in arrears for a business year that began 2.5 years before. Intuit's program simply disallowed entering any information for the first year as it was "too far in the past".

I've never selected anything from Intuit since. I'd paid for a program that was simply designed not to work. No wonder Sage is dominant over here. And no, they don't do ANY Mac software, and buy up all the companies that might.

It's a Mac app that's been ported to Windows and is 100% platform compatible, handles pretty much everything Quicken does, has versions specific to NZ, Australia, UK, US, and other countries in order to cater for their tax and accounting needs and best of all you get an Accountant Copy which can be freely given to your accountant so he works for you not the other way around.

I've been trying to get dad onto this for a while but he doesn't want to because his accountant tells him he needs to use another program because that's the program he uses. That program was designed for farmers not service station owners.

Money Works Gold is a pretty reasonable cost for businesses. You'd generally make the cost back but then I guess small businesses might find it a bit of a push.